Slot Ariana — Game Review

Ariana Video Slot Review

If you’re a fan of aquatic themed online slots like Great Blue, then Microgaming’s latest release Ariana is one you have to play. What sets the Ariana slot apart from its other deep sea inspired counterparts is the fact that it’s not a classic nature themed slot like we’ve seen over the last few years and while it does include some sea life, the focus is on the story of the adventures of the enchanting Ariana, a mermaid princess, who explores the depths looking for hidden treasure.

While Microgaming is renowned for its state of the art graphics and revolutionary game features, they have taken a different approach with the Ariana slot, which is reminiscent of the slots formats we ten years ago. This makes the slot highly appealing to some, while totally boring for others looking for more modern games with all the bells and whistles that new technology has to offer. So if you’re looking for a flashy game, skip this one but if you’re looking for a truly good slot with no distractions that is still highly appealing and rewarding, it may just be a breath of fresh air.

What this slot lacks in graphics, it definitely makes up for in the game play which is highly entertaining and offers you a number of ways to win. It is also not completely devoid of features. Designed in a 5 reel, 25 payline format the game features standard symbols as well as Expanding Wilds. This means that whenever a full symbol stacks on the first reel, it will transform other matching, high and wild symbols that are part of a winning combination into stacked symbols too, taking up the entire reel and racking up your winning payouts!

The Ariana Slot is full of features

The Ariana symbol is wild and appears on all reels substituting for all symbols except the scatter to help you achieve the highest possible winning combinations. The Starfish is the scatter symbol and if three or more appear anywhere on the reels the Free Spins feature is triggered and you have the chance to earn an extra scatter payout with five starfish rewarding you with 12,500 coins!

In the Free Spins feature you will be rewarded with 15 spins and for the duration of these the full first reel will be stacked with wilds to give you some handsome returns and if you’re lucky enough to get three or more starfish during this feature, you will re-trigger the bonus game for even more rewards.

Ariana is a medium variance slot which means that you’ll usually experience a number of small wins quite often. The highest win per spin is 240 times your wager, which when placing the maximum bet equates to €30,000 and this is awarded within the aforementioned Free Spins feature.

This game has been designed for players with small to mid-sized bankrolls with coin sizes ranging from €0.01 up to €0.50 and the maximum bet topping out at 10 coins per spin. As previously mentioned, there are 25 lines and you will have to play them all, so you’re looking at between €0.25 up to €125 per spin on this game. While this may not be too exciting if you’re a highroller, for everyone else it’s a pretty decent game.

All in all Ariana is not a groundbreaking game for Microgaming, but is definitely is a lot of good old fashioned fun, offering hours of entertainment and the opportunity for some great rewards.

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Ariana Slot Review

The waters in this Ariana mobile slot are crystal clear, with wins that will surprise you and expanding symbols that create a screen full of treasure.

As proud as Microgaming are of their underwater mermaid princess, we were not as taken by her as they would have liked.

You can feel like you can almost touch the crystal high definition waters, and Ariana herself, when she fills the whole reel and dances on your wins, certainly makes you feel like Microgaming have gone all out on the sounds and animations.

It’s certainly as good as the likes of Amazon Queen by WMS or IGT’s Prowling Panther. The Ariana online slot would not look out of place in the casino floors of Vegas.

So why did we only give it three stars?

Truthfully? We are not 100% sure. By all accounts it should have rated higher in our books.

• Triggered the free spins within 200 spins? Check!
• Experience the expanding symbols enough time to see good results? Check.
• Get stacked wilds during the free spins…? Well, no we didn’t get that actually. But came damn close!

We even managed to trigger 5 reels full of Ariana symbols (highest paying) giving us an explosive 200 times our bet win. Just see our screenshots below if you don’t believe us.

Ariana slot has all the markings of a decent slot game

Yet you know how, sometimes, some mobile slot machines just don’t thrill you? Like, you are playing, and everything they do is right, but for some reason, you wish you were playing on something else?

That’s what happened with the Ariana slot. The reason, we suspect, is because we were expecting more from a mid-variance Microgaming game.

But once we realised the top prize was only 240 times your bet, we saw that we had over-estimated this video slot. Ariana is a much softer princess who is far more forgiving to new players than for experienced gamblers.

All about the expanding symbols

The really nice thing is you can get those kind decent wins any point throughout the game, not just the free spins.

Which brought a new kind of pleasure for a Microgaming slot, even if the slow pace of the action means we’d probably only play a few tens of spins at best before moving on.

But for those who like their video slots simple, with one big feature to keep them entertained, Ariana mobile slot is certainly pretty enough to keep you spinning for a little while.

Screenshots

Ariana slot stats

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In-game bonus features

Wilds: The Ariana slot logo is wild and replaces all other symbols except scatters. It also comes stacked on reel one during the free spins.

Expanding Symbols: Any full symbol of stacks on reel one will trigger a chain reaction, where any other matching high paying symbol on the other 4 reels will expand as well, creating a chain reaction of wins.

Ariana, the highest paying symbol, comes stacked across all 5 reels anyway. However, the sea horse, the treasure chest and the coral reef only come stacked on reel 1.

Scatters and Free Spins: The purple starfish is the scatter symbol and get three anywhere on the reels to get 15 free spins.

Not only is that good for creating wins, but, much like the expanding symbol feature we mention above, if you get it to cover the whole of reel 1, any other wild on reels will also expand.

Potentially you could get 5 reels full of wilds, which would get you the max top prize win of the whole game.

Ariana Review Conclusion

Ariana mobile slot is beautifully done, even if this underwater princess looks like she just came out of an audition of the real housewives of Beverly Hills.

And with the expanding symbols bringing you surprising wins at any time, there’s a few treasures hidden in these tropical waters.

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Review by Lucky Mobile Slots , last updated: December 28, 2020 — Rating 3